In today’s world of information overload, hybrid work environments, and departmental silos, the benefits of knowledge management tools are needed more than ever.
Mckinsey found that the average worker spends nearly 20% of their workweek tracking down information, and as you can imagine, this results in a lot of lost dollars.
Without proper knowledge management processes, your team may find themselves…
Taking 2 minutes to find a document that they forgot the URL to.
Taking 10 minutes to track down a colleague who has the information they need.
Taking 30 minutes to create a new process that someone else has already outlined.
These seemingly small tasks add up quickly, leading to significant productivity losses.
In this article, we’ll explore the knowledge management benefits that will help you:
- Increase team productivity
- Eliminate redundant efforts
- Break down cross-departmental silos
- Improve remote and hybrid work processes
- Streamline onboarding and training
- Prevent knowledge loss during turnover
- Ignite innovation and growth
- Improve employee experience
- Boost employee engagement
- Better customer service
Let’s dive into these benefits of effective knowledge management!
1. Increase team productivity
One of the most impactful benefits of a knowledge management system is its ability to streamline access to critical resources, helping employees work more efficiently. According to a report by Panopto, 85% of employees believe that preserving and sharing organizational knowledge boosts productivity.
When employees can quickly access relevant information, they can make informed decisions and solve problems faster. Instead of wasting time searching for a document, they can find it in seconds. This leads to higher productivity and fewer roadblocks in day-to-day operations.
2. Eliminate redundant effort
Have you ever unknowingly created a document or a process already established by someone else on your team? This happens often when there’s no centralized knowledge base. Without a knowledge management system, employees may not be aware of existing resources and waste time duplicating work.
Implementing knowledge management tools ensures that everyone can easily access past work, eliminating redundant efforts and maximizing team efficiency.
3. Break down cross-departmental knowledge silos
What exactly are cross-departmental knowledge silos? They occur when departments in your organization have different systems and tools for sharing information. If employees don’t take the time and effort to share knowledge across the other department’s platforms, knowledge silos start to occur.
For example, your marketing team may store information in google, while your product team may use confluence. Unless these teams intentionally communicate and share between platforms, silos will become a problem. These silos can drastically inhibit collaboration and, over time, lead to a lack of company alignment. By implementing easily adaptable knowledge management systems, teams can find and share information, no matter their platforms.
4. Improve remote and hybrid work processes
It’s no secret that remote and hybrid work models are becoming the new normal. Upwork predicts that 36.2 million US workers will be remote in 2025. With employees spread across the US, maybe even the world, team members may find themselves frequently waiting to hear back from colleagues in different time zones. Perhaps they need to know the name of a particular tool, or maybe they need access to data in order to make a well-informed decision. Whatever it may be, waiting an hour or more for the information required to finish a project is frustrating.
Knowledge sharing solves this problem by removing the middle man and streamlining search processes. Rather than waiting to hear back from a coworker, employees are empowered to quickly find resources on their own and work asynchronously.
5. Streamline onboarding and training
It’s not easy to reprogram our brains as we start a new job to remember all the tools and links we need on a daily basis. A report by Panopto found that employees may struggle for up to 3.5 months, seeking out information and inadvertently replicating work. Additionally, it can take a lot of a manager’s time to compile lists of resources for new employees.
The key to making this transition easier is to use knowledge management tools that make information intuitive to find. For example, the GoLinks knowledge management tool makes any URL intuitive to find by shortening them to one word or phrase. A company could use go/benefits as the link to their benefits summary or go/onboarding as a link to all their onboarding resources. So even if a new employee forgets an exact link or tool, they should be able to find it by searching for a word or phrase.
6. Prevent knowledge loss during turnover and reductions
The loss of key employees can severely disrupt workflow and knowledge transfer within a company. The tacit knowledge that employees gain through hands-on experience is often the hardest to replace. According to Panopto, 81% of employees say this knowledge is critical to their roles, and in companies with high turnover, 65% of workers find it difficult to retrieve essential information.
Capturing and organizing knowledge before employees leave ensures that important insights and processes are not lost during transitions, allowing the company to maintain continuity.
7. Ignite innovation and growth
Innovation thrives on collaboration, but busy schedules often prevent in-person brainstorming sessions. Knowledge management enables idea sharing and collaboration by making it easy to organize and store information outside of meetings.
For example, teams can contribute ideas for a new product launch at their convenience, keeping innovation moving forward without sacrificing day-to-day responsibilities. Effective knowledge management fosters a culture of continuous improvement and growth by providing teams with the tools to collaborate more freely.
8. Improve the employee experience
The benefits of knowledge management go beyond saving time, money, and effort. They can even change employee morale. For example, Panapto found that 81% of employees report feeling frustrated when they can’t get the information they need to do their job. This frustration can quickly lead to a culture of complaining, dissatisfaction, and ultimately, high turnover.
A well-organized knowledge management system enhances the overall employee experience by creating a more supportive and transparent workplace. Employees navigate their tasks more effectively and reduce stress by easily finding the resources and guidance they need.
9. Boost employee engagement
Employees who have easy access to knowledge and the information they need are more likely to feel connected and engaged in their work. Knowledge management systems streamline communication, reduce frustration, and empower employees by giving them the resources to make informed decisions. This fosters a sense of autonomy and boosts overall employee engagement. When employees spend less time searching for information and more time contributing to meaningful tasks, their engagement and job satisfaction naturally increase.
10. Better customer service
One of the less obvious benefits of a knowledge management system is its impact on customer service. When customer-facing teams have instant access to up-to-date organizational knowledge, they can resolve customer inquiries faster and more effectively. This leads to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, as customers receive timely and accurate solutions. For instance, a centralized knowledge base allows customer service representatives to quickly find solutions to common issues, reducing response times.
How to start implementing better knowledge management
A knowledge management strategy is often an afterthought for fast-paced, quickly growing companies. However, if you want to empower your teams to do their best work and make the best business decisions, you need to make it easy to store, manage, and share information.
One of the most efficient tools for streamlining knowledge management is GoLinks. With GoLinks, you can create intuitive short links for your internal resources, making it simple for your teams to find the information they need.
Access and share resources instantly with GoLinks
Try for free
